Buffalo’s Restaurants

The Best Restaurants in Western NY

While Buffalo’s culinary reputation rests largely on the spread of our wings around the world and the now common use of “Buffalo-style” to indicate a spicy experience ahead, the city is in fact a melting pot of diverse dishes, cuisines, and dining experiences. Old school restaurateurs who have been perfecting their menus for decades are being joined by a new generation of chefs (many of them former Buffalonians returning to their resurgent hometown) who are opening innovative restaurants that are re-defining dining in the city.

A variety of flavors

Alongside these re-pats are immigrants and refugees who are bringing a taste of places like Myanmar, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Iraq to the streets of Buffalo. If that’s not enough variety, the city has dozens of food trucks rolling around that serve everything from poutine to pierogi. Sure, come for the wings, but stay to sample one of the most dynamic food cities in the United States.

Steel City Pub

1449 Abbott Road
Lackawanna, NY 14218

(716) 768-2536

trip advisor rating

Steel Leaf Brewing Company

1488 Hertel Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14216

(716) 931-9009

trip advisor rating

Steelbound Brewery & Distillery

6600 Route 219
Ellicottville, NY 14731

(716) 699-2042

trip advisor rating

Steelbound Brewery & Distillery-Springville

243 West Main Street
Springville, NY 14141

(716) 794-3555

trip advisor rating

Steelbound Restaurant

5195 Main Street
Williamsville, NY 14221

(716) 428-3957

trip advisor rating

Steer Restaurant and Saloon

3151 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214

(716) 838-0478

trip advisor rating

Sterling Place Tavern

1487 Hertel Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14216

(716) 622-6664

trip advisor rating

Steve’s Pig & Ox Roast

951 Ridge Road
Buffalo, NY 14218

(716) 824-8601

trip advisor rating

Stockman’s Tavern

9870 Transit Road
East Amherst, NY 14051

(716) 688-9896

trip advisor rating

Street Asian Food

516 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14222

(716) 886-4001

trip advisor rating

Street Asian Food – Lancaster

3574 Walden Avenue
Lancaster, NY 14086

(716) 288-7800

trip advisor rating

Streetlight Brasserie

5 E. Huron Street
Buffalo, NY 14203

(716) 303-4772

trip advisor rating
1 75 76 77 93

Chris Hawley is an urbanist and preservationist who loves all things Buffalo. He is also the owner of Eugene V. Debs Hall in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.

  1. Essex St. Pub

    Essex St. Pub opened in 1986 in a building dating to 1886. A jukebox and pool table bar, it’s a great spot for late night shenanigans and chowing on barbecue. Don’t miss the “Macky Joe,” a sloppy Joe with mac’n cheese on top.

    530 Rhode Island St., Buffalo
    essexstreetpub.com

  2. Eddie Brady’s Tavern

    Eddie Brady’s Tavern is where gruff Irishmen, downtown law and finance types, and college good-times seekers collide. Of any Buffalo tavern, Brady’s feels truest to its pre-Prohibition saloon heritage. Among other nightly specials, Brady’s offers the city’s best turkey and gravy dinner—available on Mondays.

    97 Genesee St., Buffalo
    eddiebradys.com

  3. Arty’s Grill

    Arty’s is like walking into the East Buffalo of 1972. Polka is playing over the speakers and Polish import beers are cheap and free-flowing. Prepare yourself for stories from regulars of the old neighborhood, and their visions for a revived Central Terminal—Buffalo’s vacant, iconic train station, only steps away.

    508 Peckham St., Buffalo
    facebook.com/ArtysGrill

  4. Gene McCarthy’s

    My tough Irish grandmother wore out the same McCarthy’s barstools when she was my age, and I imagine this bar feeling much the same as it did then. Even as it’s evolved with the times—McCarthy’s is now a craft brewery with the best beer garden in town—it is still a working man’s tavern in the shadow of the grain elevators. The best Buffalo wings in town? Quite possibly.

    73 Hamburg St., Buffalo
    genemccarthys.com

  5. Rohall’s Corner

    This Black Rock tavern is a museum-piece of the Streamline Moderne Style of the 1940s. The sweeping curves of the bar, ceiling, and even the lit glass block entryway communicate a city on the move. Few places are friendlier as a neighborhood gathering spot.

    540 Amherst St., Buffalo
    rohallscorner.com